


8th Day of Winter - Deck the Halls

by unjaundiced



Series: Winter Spirits [10]
Category: Naruto
Genre: 25 Days of Christmas, 25 Days of Fic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 18:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5385431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unjaundiced/pseuds/unjaundiced
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's time to decorate the new Hatake family home. Set after the side-story, <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/5384243">A House Is Not A Home</a>.<br/>They're 6 and 7 years old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	8th Day of Winter - Deck the Halls

Kakashi was _not_ a fan of decorating. He was especially not a fan of Christmas decorations. He was even less a fan of holly and pine needles as the scratches on his hands would attest to. Pakkun, his newly-minted puppy, seemed to agree by the way he would sniff, then sneeze at the needles before looking at him accusingly.  
  
“Hey, it's not my fault,” Kakashi mumbled, hissing as a prickly holly leaf jabbed him in the sensitive webbing between his fingers. “You don't have to stay there.”  
  
Pakkun stared at him some more before batting at the pine needle garland that was still offending him. He looked at Kakashi again as if demanding to know what it was doing there.  
  
“Stop _looking_ at me like that,” Kakashi commanded. “No.”  
  
Pakkun seemed to glare and sniffed before waddling away, his curly little tail tight against his back like a doughnut seeming to mock Kakashi. Kakashi sighed.  
  
“Kakashi-kun,” Gai called, tottering on the edge of a chair and holding a holly bunch and a hammer.  
  
“Look at me!” he shouted, swinging the hammer and falling off the chair with a loud clatter.  
  
He screamed.  
  
  
Five minutes later and a teary-eyed Gai was curled up on his father's lap, manfully insisting his face didn't hurt anymore though he didn't ease his grip on his father's sweater. An ice bag was carefully pressed to the side of his face and he was cringing away from everyone, embarrassed to have been seen crying.  
  
“Aah, Gai-kun,” his father sighed. “Now you know why you don't stand on furniture, right?”  
  
Gai nodded pathetically, still sniffling. “ Did you put it up?” he asked hopefully as Kakashi shuffled towards him. Kakashi kicked his toe and looked away.  
  
“Yeah, I put up your dumb holly like you wanted,” Kakashi muttered, pointing at the wall.  
  
There, stuck with removable sticky-backed hooks were holly bunches in the shape of a smiley face. Gai gave Kakashi a wobbly smile and slid off his father's lap, still clutching the ice bag to his face.  
  
“It's crooked though,” Gai declared after thoughtful consideration. “But not bad.”  
  
“It's because your head is tilted, dummy,” Kakashi shot back, crossing his arms with a huff.  
  
A thunder of feet echoed down the hallway before Iruka skidded into the room, sliding in his socks across the hardwood floor, stalling on the tatami mat and tumbling forward. He popped up a moment later with a reflexive “I'm okay!”, then he saw Gai.  
  
“Woah! What happened to your face!” he shouted with all the tact of a 6 year old.  
  
“It's a battle wound,” Gai declared, puffing up his chest. Iruka was agog.  
  
“Were you fighting samurai?” he asked. “Or ninjas?”  
  
“Ninjas of course!” Gai shouted. “Because I am honourable! I was defending Kakashi's home!”  
  
“Wow!” Iruka shouted, jumping up and down. “I've never seen a real ninja!”  
  
“There weren't any ninjas!” Kakashi protested, stepping forward, feeling defensive for some reason. “Unless your ninjas were green and red and pokey!”  
  
“Look around,” Gai proclaimed, pointing with his free hand. Kakashi–against his better judgment–looked.  
  
“We are surrounded by green and red ninja!” Gai went on.  
  
“Those aren't–” Kakashi started.  
  
“And I challenge you to the battle of the green and red ninja! We shall see who can cover the most of them up!” Gai continued, throwing his hands up, one side of his face a very bright red. “Starting now!”  
  
Kakashi sighed and flinched as something poked his arm. He glared at the offending greenery when it wiggled and gave Iruka a flat look. The boy wiggled it again and grinned.  
  
“Come on,” the brunet whispered, pointing at the boy practically throwing tinsel on everything. “You have to defeat Gai!”  
  
“Yes, squire,” Kakashi uttered sternly. “You. Carry my things.”  
  
“Yes, sir!” Iruka snickered and tucked a box of fairy lights under each arm before marching after his “commanding officer” with exaggerated strides. He didn't notice the small puppy waddling after and staring up at him curiously.  
  
  
Gai hung huge glass ornaments on Sakumo's collection of bonsai, the tiny trees dwarfed by massive glass horses, stars, and houses. He hung ornaments off ornaments, determined that more was better.  
  
When the sun angled itself just right, it refracted off the glittering trees with a light so bright, Tsunade fell off the landing and onto the grass. She lay there moaning that she had died and to bury her under the house.  
  
Gai's father made him tone down the display.  
  
Across the yard Iruka was busy climbing a cherry tree with a rope in hand, Kakashi staring worriedly from the base, when a squirrel jumped on his head and began to chitter angrily. Iruka yelped and batted at the creature, seating himself on a thick branch as he did so. Kakashi immediately began to shout at the squirrel and Pakkun waddled back and forth barking his irritation, small body bouncing with each outburst.  
  
The squirrel froze when the barking started and clambered off Iruka's head, coming halfway down the tree to stare at the puppy. Pakkun stared at it intensely before letting out a small sound that was more of a “boof” than anything else. The squirrel scurried away, looking over its shoulder every few seconds before it jumped into a bush and disappeared.  
  
Pakkun sat down heavily as if he had just done a massively great deed and gave Kakashi a pointed look. The boy shrugged and tied the free end of Iruka's rope to a string of lights before holding it up. Iruka, looking a little worse for wear, frantically began to haul on the rope. He wanted to get out of squirrel-infested trees as quickly as possible. He pulled up the rope so fast the plug at the end of the lights almost struck him in the face.  
  
Iruka was lying on the branch straining to wrap the length of lights around it when Ikkaku came out to see what was going on and rushed over, scolding him about people falling from trees and the kinds of injuries they sustained before lifting him off the branch.  
  
“How would you even plug this in,” Ikkaku asked, pointing to the tree. “ The house is all the way over there.” He pointed across the yard.  
  
“Use more lights,” Kakashi said, as if it was the most obviously thing in the world.  
  
“First of all, that's dangerous.” Ikkaku sighed. “Second of all, you will be able to see the cord in the grass if you just stretch it out like that.”  
  
“Cover it with blankets,” Kakashi said with a shrug. “Nobody will notice.”  
  
“Until they trip and fall.” Ikkaku deadpanned. “Kakashi, there are special battery packs we can use to power tree lights.”  
  
“They had better not fall then.” Kakashi was unsympathetic.  
  
“Kakashi, let's put lights on the bushes too,” Iruka piped up, scooping a pile of lights into his arms, completely missing the whole conversation. He took a step forward, tripped on a dangling strand and fell forward, almost squashing an offended looking Pakkun.  
  
“Okay, we won't use a long cord,” Kakashi said.

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted on Livejournal in 2011 as part of the annual 12 or 25 Days of Christmas challenge. The story takes place by years and utilises Japanese honourifics as a necessity. I tried to use canonical names wherever possible and created original character names as needed.
> 
> Due to the conditions at the time, the writing is a bit clunky but will largely remain unedited.


End file.
